Stay sharp! Maintaining your lawn care equipment.

To keep your mower in tip-top running condition, have a competent service professional thoroughly inspect your mower at least once a year.

Inspection areas:
Sharpening and balancing the blade - A dull blade tears grass and can leave it prone to disease, and an unbalanced blade can cause your mower excess wear and tear.
Check the air filter - If you are using the mower in dry or dusty conditions, you will need to replace the air filter more often.

Check the spark plug - Always ensure that the spark plug is clean and gapped correctly.
Check the carburetor - and have it adjusted if necessary.
Check the oil - and have it changed if needed.
Check the wheels, bags, and
belts - and replace as needed. Consider blowing off mower after each use.

Your lawn mower is likely the most frequently used piece of outdoor power equipment that you own - here's a maintenance calendar that's handy to use. Proper maintenance is extremely important to maximizing efficiency, reducing emissions, preventing costly repairs and extending the life of your lawn mower. By keeping your mower in proper working order, you can help maintain a healthy environment, pocketbook and lawn.
For more information on lawn care, contact your local University of Idaho Extension office!

Mosquitoes? Consider Your Lawn Watering.

It’s warming up so we are all watering our lawns. With the warm weather and water, come those irritating and possibly disease infested mosquitoes.

What do mosquitoes have to do with yards? When you over water your lawn the earth beneath doesn’t dry out and creates a perfect mosquito habitat. There are certain species of mosquito that will lay eggs in the damp mud and the next time your water comes on; the water sits on top of the earth for a period of time that allows the mosquito eggs to hatch. On warm days it doesn’t take very long for a mosquito to go from egg, larvae, pupae to adult. Once the female adult mosquito hatches, it looks for a blood meal. Yep, you and your family!

Another problem is the water filling up buckets, flower pots, wheel barrows or other items left outside. This water then sits, heats up and then becomes stagnant. Female Culex species of mosquito love to lay their eggs in this water. This species can carry West Nile Virus and transmit it to you and your family with one bite.

You can help keep your family safe by making sure you are watering your yard properly, and that your sprinklers are only watering the things they should be and that they are not leaving puddles below the heads. 

Another thing to consider is a smart sprinkler controller. Many of these come with the ability to track the weather and skip a watering if it isn't needed. It can save water, money, and help avoid standing water.

There are many published articles on the web about how to water your type of grass and how much water is enough...and the kind of pests that can flourish in unhealthy turf. A great publication for Idaho residents to refer to for guidance is The Pacific Northwest Handbook. 

The “Rule of thumb” that is widely used is: water as deeply and as infrequently as possible. This stimulates root growth resulting in healthy drought tolerant and pest resistant turf (like mosquitoes)! A healthy root system produces vigorous turf: rooting depth is determined primarily by genetics and soil condition, not irrigation!

Stay sharp when mowing your lawn with these lawn mower maintenance tips.

To keep your mower in tip-top running condition, have a competent service professional thoroughly inspect your mower at least once a year.

Inspection areas:

Sharpening and balancing the blade [youtube]. A dull blade tears grass and can leave in prone to disease, and an unbalanced blade can cause your mower excess wear and tear.

     Check the air filter. If you are using the mower in dry or dusty conditions, you will need to replace the air filter more often.

                               Check the spark plug. Always ensure that the spark plug is clean and gapped correctly.

    


   


     Check the carburetor and have it adjusted if necessary.






                                Check to oil, and have it changed if needed.  

      Check the wheels, bags, and
belts and replace as needed.

Your lawn mower is likely the most frequently used piece of outdoor power equipment that you own - here's a maintenance calendar that's handy to use. Proper maintenance is extremely important to maximizing efficiency, reducing emissions, preventing costly repairs and extending the life of your lawn mower. By keeping your mower in proper working order, you can help maintain a healthy environment, pocketbook and lawn.

For more information on lawn care, contact your local University of Idaho Extension office! 

Master Gardener Plant Clinics

What is this plant?

Is this a good or bad bug?

Have you ever seen a flower or weed or insect and wanted to know what it is? Or ever had your lawn or favorite plant/tree/bush suddenly start looking sick and wanted to know why?

You may not realize it, but expert help may be right around the corner!  

Starting on April 30, hours are Monday 1-4, Wednesday 1-4, and Friday 9-12.

Plant clinics take place at many locations around the area. Many are held at the County Extension Office while others may be at the local nursery or garden center, or at your community farmers market.

Idaho Master Gardener volunteers are trained to help you in plant and pest ID as well aiding in diagnosing what is wrong with a sick plant, tree, bush or lawn. 

For more information about becoming a Master Gardener volunteer or to contact our Plant Clinic, contact your local University of Idaho Extension office!

Lawn watering and fertilization.

To produce top quality lawns you need to care for the grass so that its growth is not limited by nutritional needs, insects, or weed pests and water.

Water is usually the biggest problem that needs to be solved to develop the best looking lawns. Lawns need from one inch to one and a half inches a week. If the soil is good and of adequate depth it is best to apply water twice a week. More water than 1.5 inches will weaken the root system because it slows the movement of oxygen in to the soil and the root require oxygen to survive. When less than an inch of water is applied the soil will dry out between water and the top of the grass will start to go dormant.

The amount of Fertilizer the grass needs depends on how is it used and what you want it to look like, here is a good article on the issue.

The article focused on nitrogen because it is the nutrient the grass needs us to supply the most, the other nutrients you may need to supply are phosphorus and potassium. A soil test will help you determine how much, if any, of these nutrients you need to apply.

Did someone throw up on the lawn? It may be snow mold.

Now that the #snow is melting off the #grass, you may be noticing snow mold. Here is what you need to know to manage it:

Rapid drying and warming will lessen the outbreak of disease.

Remove snow to allow better drainage and remove the mycelial crust on infected turf by raking. This will help recovery of the grass.


Lightly applying a low dose of nitrogen fertilizer in the spring will promote new growth.When applied in the fall, fungicides can be useful in controlling disease, but are not effective when applied in late winter or early spring!

Additionally, for pink snow mold it’s important to maintain low soil pH and balanced soil fertility.

Aeration of your lawn will help remove thatch and allow for oxygen to penetrate the soil and reach the roots. This will help your lawn recover more quickly. This is also a good time to reseed any areas which may need to be reseeded.

For more information, contact your local county extension office!